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Child Care Associates and Tarrant County on Thursday announced a collaborative multi-year initiative to expand access to early education.
The CCA has opened a request for applications seeking four to eight facilities built or renovated across Tarrant County, which will include Early Head Start programming to serve infants and toddlers.
This Early Head Start infrastructure expansion opportunity will be funded through Tarrant County’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, authorized through the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. Those funds are to be used to mitigate the ongoing effects of COVID-19 and support pandemic recovery in Tarrant County. Use of those funds are overseen by the Tarrant County Commissioners Court.
“This is a transformational opportunity for early childhood development,” said Tarrant County Precinct 1 Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks in a statement. “I am excited that Tarrant County and CCA together will work to bring Early Head Start services to some of our highest-need neighborhoods.”
Applications will be accepted beginning April 6 with an informational webinar planned for 2 p.m. April 11. For additional information, visit the CCA website.
Child Care Associates supports child care programs in our community with coaching, training, grants, and community coordination. CCA tracks important child care data, leads innovations in North Texas early learning approaches and helps set the bar for quality statewide.
While issues related to accessing quality, early learning have been long-standing for disproportionately impacted populations, COVID-19 compounded challenges, reducing the supply of quality child care in low-income neighborhoods while also severely impacting job losses in industries comprised of low to mid-wage workers. Lack of availability of quality child care centers, fear of children being exposed to COVID-19, and the rising cost of child care caused many families to withdraw their children from formal early education programs, further decreasing enrollment revenue for providers, according to CCA.
A report released by the policy group Children at Risk, cited by CCA, indicated that Texas lost up to 21% of child care providers from March 2020 to September 2021. Out of the programs closed during that time, 41% served infants and toddlers and 79% of them were child care homes.
“Many families live in child-care deserts and lack geographic ease of access to child care,” according to the CCA.
Children of color are overrepresented in these areas. In the Children at Risk desert map, 24 zip codes in Tarrant County are child care deserts. It also reports there are only 51.5 child-care seats per 100 children of working parents. More early learning facilities are needed to accommodate the growing number of children who require child care, especially in areas where there are inadequate services, according to CCA.
“Bringing high quality early education and care services for infants and toddlers of families who need those services is one of the greatest returns on investment we can provide and is a solid step toward the elimination of generational poverty in Tarrant County,” said Brooks.
The request for application is open to political subdivisions such as cities and school districts. The contribution of land and/or an existing building is a prerequisite to be considered for the program. The contribution may be in the form of gifting the land or ensuring the land is eligible for a no or low cost, long-term ground lease or facility lease for a minimum of 30 years.
Projects must be in Tarrant County.
Proposals must meet the following requirements:
- Minimum 12,200 square feet facility
- Minimum of eight classrooms and one indoor play area, each ranging from 360 square feet to
- 1800 square feet. (in addition to other Early Head Start and child care regulations).
- Parking to accommodate a minimum of 22 spaces
- Building will need to be eligible for an Education or Education/Institutional Certificate of Occupancy
“We are thrilled that Tarrant County has responded to this partnership with CCA to build up Early Head Start access in high need communities,” said Kara Waddell, president and CEO of Child Care Associates.
“Tarrant County today has 24 zip codes identified as child-care deserts … and the annual cost of infant care can be higher than one year of public university in Texas. This is a win for children and families, especially families facing economic hardships.”